


Winter's Glass

by TheTransversalArtisan



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Christmas, Cute, Dark, Feast, Fluff, Foreshadowing, Fountain, Hanukkah, Holidays, Humor, M/M, Open to Interpretation, Party, Poetry, Prideshipping, Romance, Snow, Solstice, Suggested Sex, blind, blind kaiba, blind seto, character with a disability, incident, kaiba/yami - Freeform, kind of prose poetry, post-dsod, promise ring, proposal, romantic, soft, yami/kaiba, yu-gay-oh, yugioh - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 05:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13140357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTransversalArtisan/pseuds/TheTransversalArtisan
Summary: Yami waited for Kaiba to appear, and, fifteen minutes later, he noticed the red end of a white cane. “Hello, Seto.”A gift for the amazing, creative, and dedicated prettiugli, a dear friend whose diligent works give me life.





	Winter's Glass

Yami shivered as a gust of wind blew ice crystals up from the curb and against the exposed skin of his neck and face. Languidly-fluttering flakes draped over his eyelashes and kissed the tip of his bitterly-chilled nose. He shivered, and, digging his hands deeper into his coat pockets and curling his chin behind the protective walls of his turned-up collar, he leaned back against the frigid wall next to the entrance of Domino University.

Only a few cars braved the icy road before the school. Most of the traffic was clogging the downtown parking lots, crowds flooding stores in conglomerations of panicked, last-minute shopping sprees. Distant, cheerful melodies wafted on snowflakes, drifting softly against Yami’s ears, forming a humming background to Yami’s one thought:

_Seto._

Although he rarely attended class these days, he had started private lessons with a specialized tutor on campus. His lessons often ran late, after all the other students had returned home, which meant that Yami would stay thirty minutes to an hour after the chime of the final bell. Yami was certain that his patient waiting was the only reason Kaiba chose to participate in tutoring on campus, rather than in the comfort and convenience of his home or at Kaiba Corp.

It had been approximately twenty minutes since Yami had bid Yugi and co. a temporary farewell, the group chattering excitedly about the long-anticipated night before them. Yami had remained at the school’s entrance as per his tendency, while Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda, Ryou, and Yugi trotted toward the road, turning in the direction of the Kame Game Shop, well aware that they would see their companion at dinner for the fun and semi-formal night ahead of them.

Yami had watched them go, the memory of the recent conversation he had had with Kaiba drifting through his mind like the snow on the air. Only two months previously had Yami broached him about revealing the depth of their relationship to their friends, a suggestion at which Kaiba had rolled his eyes and drawled, “They _still_ haven’t figured it out, yet?”

Yami waited for Kaiba to appear, and, fifteen minutes later, he noticed the red end of a white cane. “Hello, Seto.”

Kaiba’s ears pricked, and he turned in Yami’s direction. “Yami…why are you out here? It’s freezing.”

“I was waiting for you,” Yami replied.

“You could have waited inside.”

“I like the snow.”

Kaiba rolled his glassy eyes—a gesture of habit. “Are we still on for tonight?”

“Of course,” Yami assured him. “None of us would miss it. Well, maybe Jonouchi, but you know how he is.”

Kaiba smiled in amusement and retracted his cane. “I’ve already called our ride. It should be here right about…”—His ears pricked in the direction of the road.—“now.”

Right on cue, a sleek, black car pulled up to the front of the school. Kaiba approached it, easily climbed inside, and Yami followed suit through the opposing door.

“Thank you for hosting us like this,” Yami mentioned, closing the passenger door beside him.

Kaiba waved him off. “No need to be so formal. You and I are far too familiar for that.”

“Right. Thanks, anyway.” Yami made sure to keep his tone light so Kaiba would know he was kidding. Then, “How have your lessons been?”

“Fine,” Kaiba assured him. “It is like learning a new language, but that’s simple enough. I have all means at my disposal of translating documents and generally continuing my work, despite this minor…glitch.”

Kaiba grew quiet on that last word, and Yami reached out to touch his hand. Kaiba turned toward him, his head tilted ever too slightly to the right.

“Don’t worry, Seto. You’ll learn it all in no time, and soon you’ll be working at the same tireless pace as you were before. The transition may be difficult, but that’s why I’m here.”

Kaiba grimaced at his words. “Like I need a pep-talk.”

“I think you do.” Yami squeezed his hand. “It’s a shame that the accident happened now of all times of the year, but we have to accept it as is. And as I promised…I’ll be your eyes for as long as you need me to be.”

Kaiba did not reply. His eyes travelled out the window, as if he could see the sparkling decorations lining the buildings outside.

But the returned press of his hand was the only assurance Yami needed.

~

The Kaiba Manor was sparkling with decorations in the gray afternoon snowlight. Strings of inactive bulbs danced between trees and statues of _Blue-Eyes White Dragons_ interspersed throughout the glistening-white gardens, the grounds of which were traced with a web of freshly-shoveled pathways.

The car pulled up to the stairs at the entrance of the Manor; Isono and Yami exited the vehicle at the same time. Isono was the first to arrive at Kaiba’s door, but Kaiba did not step out to take his chief servant’s politely-offered arm. “Yami,” Kaiba called softly.

Yami was there in an instant, touching Kaiba’s arm. Kaiba’s hand trailed up to his elbow, and he allowed himself to be guided out of the car. Yami led him up the steps, entering the key code into the pad on the door handle and sliding his copy of the physical key into the lock, turning it with an acute _click_.

_“Couldn’t you have your servants open the door for us?”_

_“I trust you with the key and code more than I trust the judgment of my employees.”_

Yami held the door open for Kaiba, who easily stepped inside and weaved between furniture with his hands to guide him. He no longer required the use of his white cane to find his way around his own home, but he still relied on memory and touch.

As Kaiba ascended the stairs, Yami noticed the flock and flurry of servants bustling about, cleaning and cooking and hanging remaining decorations. There were a few tables adorned with white cloths, fleur-de-lis napkins, crystal goblets, tall candles, draped garlands, and early appetizers.

Yami sat at the bar and watched the hustle and bustle with vague interest, doing his best to keep out of the way. Only when he heard the front door open and felt a presence at his side did Yami look up to see Isono towering over him. “May I get you something to drink, Master Yami?” he inquired politely.

_“Master Yugi--”_

_“That’s not his name, Isono.”_

_“Master Kaiba?”_

_“It’s Yami, Isono. Yugi is his twin.”_

“Yes, please,” Yami accepted with a smile, “sparkling water, if you would be so kind.”

Isono nodded and swam through the school of servants, returning to Yami to set a glass before him. “Ice?”

“No, thank you.”

Isono poured the carbonated liquid into the glass, and Yami sipped absentmindedly as he watched the house transform into a palace fit for the upcoming feast. He quietly observed until he heard footsteps treading down the stairs; he turned to see Kaiba carefully stepping down into the nearby living room, his arms laden with various documents, his laptop, and a device he used for translating written text to audio.

“Need any help?” Yami queried.

“I got it,” Kaiba replied, descending the final steps and approaching the coffee table. Unloading himself from his burden, he sat upon the couch nearer the hearth, among the decorations, adjacent to the pile of elegantly-wrapped gifts and pinnacles of holidécor, the sight of him in his warm, midnight blue sweater, white pants, and thick socks perfectly completing the festive, Wintry aesthetic of the room.

Once settled, Kaiba opened his laptop, guided his fingers to the correct keys through touch, and typed in his password. Hearing the laptop’s jubilant chime, he plugged in his white earbuds to the translator and into his ears, retrieved the document at the top of his stack, and scanned it with the device to commence his work. Yami watched the slow, careful movements of his hands, admittedly fascinated by Kaiba’s newfound scrutinous approach to his invisible environment.

_“You’re working down here, Seto?”_

_“Yeah, so?”_

_“Don’t you normally work in your office upstairs?”_

_“I work wherever I want to be.”_

_“And you always work in the same room as me.”_

Yami returned to leisurely watching the servants and Kaiba as they worked, sipping on his sparkling water. He paid attention to the way Kaiba scanned documents with his device and paused to listen to whatever translated information was relayed to his ears, his head tilting ever so slightly, his ears pricking independently of his head. Yami smiled at his sensitive, acute reactions to the sounds as he typed notes into his computer or verbally annotated instructions to input certain numbers into specific categories or programs.

_“Do you need some time to adjust? It’s a big change, Seto.”_

_“Sure. Give me an hour.”_

Yami approached Kaiba after a few minutes, extracting his own homework and sitting beside him.

When Mokuba arrived home from Kaiba Corp. an hour later, having given himself and the other employees the rest of the night off to be with their friends and families, specifically eager to attend the festivities of his own home, he was unsurprised to find his brother and Yami sitting side-by-side in their usual manner on the couch, Yami’s head resting on Seto’s shoulder, a notebook marred with scrawled equations and diagrams leaning precariously off his lap, Seto’s fingers trailing delicately over the neat engravings of Braille documents.

_“Nii-sama, the damage is reversible, right?”_

_“It’s…unlikely, Mokuba…. I’m sorry.”_

_“Nii-sama, are you--?”_

_“Don’t worry, Mokuba. This won’t stop or slow our work. We’ll just have to adjust to the change. I’ve already fired that rambunctious idiot who overhauled the system against orders.”_

Mokuba turned away from his brother and his brother’s aide and patrolled the bustling kitchen, ordering adjustments and preparations for the upcoming feast.

~

“Nice decorations, Kaiba.”

Although Jonouchi’s tone was smarmy and sarcastic, the way his eyes darted from glinting bauble to shining light to glittering tinsel expressed genuine awe at the intricate dowry of the Kaiba Manor.

Yami stood at Kaiba’s side as the head of the house grinned cordially and invited Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda, Ryou, Sugoroku, and Yugi into his home. They deposited their gifts with those near the sofa and shucked their coats, which Isono took with him into one of the guest rooms. All around, the aromas of the wide spreads upon the tables made the mouths of each member water, and the two hastiest members of the group were quick to converge upon the delicacies. Anzu had already started to reprimand their petulantly impatient behavior when Mokuba appeared from the kitchen and assured them, “Eat as much as you like. There’s plenty for everybody.”

Honda and Jonouchi were the first to fill their plates and take their places at the dining table. The other guests followed suit, and Yami took Kaiba by the arm to assist him in filling both of their plates how they each desired them.

Once seated, the party was quick to indulge in excited, rapid-fire conversation, with Jonouchi bragging about how he had defeated three of his opponents in the recent local tournament, Honda reminding him that he had come in fourth place, Anzu adding that he would have won if his deck did not rely so much on luck, Jonouchi wailing about how he needed better friends, Sugoroku pitching in that he had been trying to teach him to rely more on skill for years, that he wished the best of _luck_ to any of them if they could make Jonouchi alter his ways, and the five of them, including Yugi, bursting into cacophonous guffaws that triggered even Seto to smile softly at the jovial mood infecting the table. Meanwhile, Mokuba and Ryou chowed down to the point of gorging on the delicious array of food assembled before them at the ends of the table, perfectly content to ignore the conversation wafting around them in favor of gluttonous satiation.

Kaiba and Yami did not much participate in the conversation or the overindulging, preferring instead to listen, to savor the flavors of the wonderful dishes, and to let their knees touch under the table, quiescently enjoying the assemblage and cheer around them. Members of the party would occasionally rise for seconds, refills, and thirds, and Yami was always by Kaiba’s side to assist him whenever they participated in this same ritual.

At the same time, Yugi Mutou, however engrossed in the joviality of the conversation, was prone to glimpse his twin and Seto from time to time, an inquisitive look in his shimmering eyes.

It had been a month since Yugi had received the call.

_“Kame Game Shop. Mutou Yugi speaking. How may I assist--?”_

_“Yugi?”_

_“Kaiba-kun? What’s up?”_

_“Have you seen the news?”_

_“No, what—is everything okay?”_

_“I need to speak to Yami. He’s not picking up his cell. Do you know where he is?”_

_“He’s in the shower. Do you need me to get him?”_

_“Tell him to call me back as soon as possible. It’s urgent.”_

_“Kaiba?”_

_“I’ll explain it to you later—if Yami doesn’t tell you first.”_

Yugi glanced over at the pair in the growing glow of the candlelight. The light of the fire Isono had just lit in the hearth glinted off the silver platters and elegant decorations adorning the room, their glitter reflecting in Yugi’s large, innocent eyes as the sunlight streaming through the windows dimmed.

Yami smiled at him and intentionally squeezed Kaiba’s arm.

_“Are you sure you want to do this, Yami?”_

_“I’m sure, Aibou.”_

_“But living with him…that’s a big change.”_

_“It is, but he needs me. Mokuba is too busy with Kaiba Corp. and school to take care of him, himself, but since you and I have already graduated high school, I’ll need to get out of the house, anyway.”_

_“But you’ll be taking care of him all the time. It sounds like a lot of work. Can’t he hire one of his servants to help him—for pay?”_

_“He’ll be paying me in room, board, and spending money.”_

_“Why are you going out of your way for him, though? Why did he call asking for you before anybody else?”_

The pressure against Kaiba’s arm caused him to turn his head in Yami’s direction. Yami consolingly patted Seto to assure him that he wasn’t asking for his specific attention.

Yami met his twin’s gaze while Seto returned to observing the conversation and taking ginger bites and miniscule sips from his plate and goblet. Yami offered Yugi a resolute nod.

Yugi watched him for a long moment, glancing at Yami’s grip on Seto’s arm. Understanding dawned on his expression. He blinked, his large eyes glinting in comprehension, and he smiled.

_“Because Seto trusts me.”_

~

The spritely conversation persisted into the living room. There were neatly-wrapped gifts from Kaiba and Anzu, decently-packaged gifts from Yugi, Yami, Mokuba, and Ryou, messy wrapping from Honda, and newspaper coverings from Jonouchi.

“What?! We have a lot of leftovers from the press! Besides, I don’t see you putting forth much _effort_ , either,” Jonouchi protested against Honda’s teasing, pointing accusingly toward Honda’s lazily-packaged gifts. Then, “By the way, Kaiba, I’m seeing a lot of presents here from you. Did _you_ buy everyone _gifts_?”

Kaiba smirked in Jonouchi’s direction and playfully ribbed him, “Did I buy gifts for _all_ of you? I don’t remember buying anything for a deadbeat.”

“I’ll get you _, rich boy!_ ”

Honda grabbed Jonouchi under the arms as he made to lunge at Kaiba. Kaiba, of course, did not react in the slightest, and, instead, calmly proceeded, “Why don’t you pass out gifts for the rest of us, Katsuya?”

Jonouchi blinked at Kaiba’s casual use of his first name, but he obliged, reaching for one of the gifts.

“No, not that one,” Kaiba interrupted, staring straight ahead into empty space.

Jonouchi, flustered, turned toward him. “Then which one—oh.”

Kaiba smiled at his own joke, and Yami warmly pressed his hand. Jonouchi flushed with embarrassment as everyone in the room burst into laughter, but Yugi’s chortles were notably quiet when compared to the merriment of his companions.

_“No way; you’re telling me that Kaiba is…that he can no longer--?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“And Yami has become his personal help?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“Do Anzu, Honda, and Ryou know?”_

_“I was hoping you would come with me to break the news.”_

_“Sure, but how did you find out?”_

_“Kaiba called, and Yami and I had him on speaker.”_

_“…How did it happen?”_

Anzu was the first to receive her gift: a new pair of expensive dancing flats. Ryou was next: a set of ten-sided, solid, azure dice for his favorite tabletop RPG, _Monster World_. Honda was third, followed by Sugoroku, then Mokuba. Yugi was next, receiving a new card: _Gandora-X The Dragon of Demolition_. He was followed by Seto.

“You got me a gift?” Seto sounded incredulous, but pleased.

“It’s more like a modification,” Ryou explained. “We all pitched in.”

“Go on, Kaiba-kun. Open it,” Anzu urged him.

Kaiba nodded and peeled open the package. He blinked uncertainly, and Yami guided his hands to open the deck box. Kaiba reached in to extract one of the contents: a blue card sleeve at the front of the box. His fingers trailed over the front of the sleeve, and his eyes widened at the familiar touch of engraved dots beneath his fingertips. Although he was still learning the language, he immediately recognized the text at the top of the sleeve: _Blue-Eyes White Dragon_.

“They’re Braille card sleeves,” Yugi explained. “We had them custom-made at my shop with the help of Isono and the Braille instructor at school. This way, you can continue to play Duel Monsters with your own deck without having to modify your cards or buy new ones.”

Kaiba sat in silence for a long moment, tracing the eight stars, the Light attribute at the top, and the description at the bottom of the card:

_[Dragon]_

_This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale._

_ATK/3000 DEF/2500_

“Hey, rich boy, do you like it?” came Jonouchi’s demanding, but nervous inquiry.

Kaiba nodded slowly, and Yami noticed the slightest tremor in his voice as he murmured, “Thank you.”

Jonouchi’s eyes widened, but he attempted to maintain his composure. “You’re welcome, rich boy,” he grumbled, but his expression betrayed how touched he was by Kaiba’s genuine reaction to the gift.

“Katsuya,” Kaiba instructed, “there should be one for Yami from me. Give him that one.”

Jonouchi nodded, but caught and corrected himself: “Sure thing.” He took the deep blue package interlaced with silver snowflakes and passed it to Yami.

“Oh, Seto, I told you I didn’t want anything…” Yami timidly reminded him.

“You don’t want these. You need them,” Kaiba corrected him. “Open it.” He looked in Yami’s direction, his expression expectant.

Yami peeled back the paper with care, feeling the parcel sink under his touch. He extracted the contents and ran his fingers over the thick, silky, violet fabric, trimmed with silver and etched with the KC logo at the tail of the scarf. The matching gloves were designed in a similar fashion.

_“Yami, what size of gloves do you wear?”_

_“Small, why?”_

_“No reason.”_

“Try them on,” Kaiba instructed. “I want to know if the gloves fit.”

Yami did, and he smiled at how smoothly and snugly the gloves slid onto his hands. “They fit wonderfully. Thank you, Seto.”

“If you’re going to wait for me out in the cold after school, then you had best wrap up warm,” Kaiba stated matter-of-factly, squeezing Yami’s arm.

“What about me?” Jonouchi impatiently whined. “Where’s my present?”

“It’s the small one from me,” Kaiba offered. “You had best appreciate it.”

Joey dove at the small parcel and tore it open. “No way! _Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon?_ ”

“If you ever want to have a hope of beating me in a duel, you’ll rely on your _Red-Eyes_ , just as I learned to rely on my _Blue-Eyes_ ,” Kaiba advised him.

Jonouchi blushed fiercely at this sagely advice, hiding his face behind his new card as Ryou concurred with Kaiba, “He’s right, Jonouchi. _Red-Eyes_ is the best card in your deck. You should focus on it and build an archetype around it.”

“Maybe then you’ll actually start winning at tournaments,” Anzu teased him.

“Hey!”

But the company had already acquiesced to jocularity once more.

“Finish your work, paper boy,” Honda teased him.

Jonouchi, grumbling, did so, placing his new card a little too close to the crackling hearth as he reached for the next gift. Yugi gingerly took the card and moved it to the safety of a nearby table.

In this manner, they unwrapped their presents, marveling at each gift—most of them trading cards. Once the servants were coming around to scrap the discarded wrapping paper, the gang took to challenging one another to duels. Ryou proposed to Jonouchi first with his Terror of the Occult deck, and it took a good amount of coaxing from Anzu, Honda, and Sugoroku for Jonouchi to accept. Anzu then challenged Honda to a duel, with the group agreeing to let the final winner play against Yugi. Meanwhile, Sugoroku played coach for Jonouchi, looming over his shoulder and none-too-subtly instructing his moves, much to Referee Mokuba’s chagrin. It was Yugi who noticed the two members of their party who had yet to participate: “Yami, Kaiba, did you two want to join in?”

The pair, who were leaning against each other’s shoulders, holding hands and watching their friends, smiled lackadaisically back at him. “We’re fine; thank you,” Kaiba responded for the two of them. “In any case, I still have to sleeve my cards before I can play. You all have fun.”

Yami nodded in concurrence, and Yugi returned to their informal tournament. Yami and Kaiba watched them play by the fire in the otherwise dark room, chattering noisily and having wonderfully competitive matches, the players occasionally scampering off to retrieve snacks and drinks. Yami smiled as he watched them, feeling warm, full, and content. Only when Kaiba squeezed his arm did he divert his lax attention.

“Let’s go outside.”

Yami nodded, and, while the others were thoroughly engrossed in their intense matches, the pair slipped on their coats, scarves, gloves, boots, and Yami led Seto out into the dark, cold, snowy, welcoming garden.

The harlequin lights, woven around trees, hung from statue to statue, lining the pathways and illuminating the Manor, twinkled like they were the very stars themselves, plucked from the celestial sphere to coruscate the night around them.

Yami and Kaiba walked arm-in-arm down a shoveled path, their breath ghosting on the air before them as snowflakes drifted softly down on them. Yami smiled at the way the crystal flakes settled on Kaiba’s hair and eyelashes, gracing him with a glitter that sparkled in the colorful lights. A white scarf was wrapped tightly around his neck, and his charcoal coat bore the silver KC insignia on his lapel. His collar was turned up, and, like Yami, his hands were buried deep in his pockets, effectively locking their arms together.

Yami leaned warmly against Kaiba’s side as he led him down the path, gazing at the beautiful lights, the snow, and Seto, his heart thrumming in his ears as the snow crunched beneath their feet.

“Describe them to me,” Kaiba murmured.

Yami blinked at him. “You’ve seen them before.”

“They hang them up differently every year,” Kaiba explained. “Describe them to me.”

Yami stared at him for a long moment.

Kaiba stared straight ahead, looking into nothing.

Yami understood.

He began.

_“Is the new virtual reality system ready?”_

_“Yes, Kaiba-sama. We’ve improved the realism of Spell Card animations with laser graphics. It has been quite a strain on the system, but any bugs have been discerned and resolved.”_

_“Is it ready for testing?”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“Then I’ll head down to the chamber for alpha testing.”_

“There are azure icicles hanging along the edge of the roof. All around us, the _Blue-Eyes_ statues have blue lights draped between them. The trees are wrapped in yellow and the pathway in red and green. There are blue snowflake shapes mounted on the bushes, and the bars of the gate are wrapped in rainbow.”

_“Are you ready, Kaiba-sama?”_

_“I am. Begin testing.”_

_“Commencing simulation. Welcome, Kaiba-sama. Select a difficulty.”_

_“Expert.”_

“There are candles in the window, and there are ferns and garlands wrapped around the pillars. There’re mistletoe and holly and Stars of David.”

 _“I contact fuse into_ Twin Burst! _”_

 _“Special summoning detected. Activating Trap Card to special summon_ Dark Magician _to the field in Attack Mode.”_

_“I attack!”_

_“Activating Trap Card:_ Mirror Wall. _”_

“All around us, it’s snowing. There’s about a foot of snow on the ground around us. I doubt any of us will be able to return home tonight, and school will likely be cancelled tomorrow.”

 _“…your monster is banished. I activate the effect of_ The White Stone of Ancients _to Special Summon_ Blue-Eyes White Dragon _from my deck. My turn is over.”_

 _“Draw Phase initiated. Commencing Standby Phase. Proceeding to Main Phase One: Activating Spell Card:_ Raigeki. _”_

_“Son of a--”_

“The fountain is up ahead. The lights are glimmering in the pool. Can you hear the splashing of the water?”

_“Sir, something is off about these readings. The computer isn’t responding to the Spell Card holograms. We’ll try overriding the system to see if that works.”_

_“Override?”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“Attempt a soft reset.”_

“Yes, I can hear it.”

“We’re nearly there now.”

_“Sir, the system isn’t responding to our attempts to reset.”_

_“Nii-sama, the system is freezing up. We need to find a way to shut it down_ now _.”_

_“Sir, we can override the program if we initiate a full-scale system restart.”_

_“Proceed.”_

“Stop before the fountain, Yami.”

“Whatever for?”

_“Graphics error detected. Attempting system overhaul.”_

_“Overhaul? …What the hell—who turned out the lights?!”_

_“The system is restarting, sir.”_

_“Nii-sama, I don’t like the looks of this. You need to leave.”_

“Seto, what is it? Why did we stop?”

“Hold out your hand.”

_“Unable to complete system overhaul. Rebooting.”_

_“Who ordered the overhaul?!”_

_“Nii-sama, the computer can’t handle this kind of strain! You need to get out of there!”_

Kaiba reached into the inner pocket of his coat.

_“Sir, I believe I’ve resolved the issue. I’ve bypassed the non-lethal security protocols to allow the system to function beyond current allowed capacity.”_

_“You_ what _?!”_

_“Nii-sama!”_

_“Yes, sir, but the system should now have the necessary RAM to function--”_

_“You_ idiot! _Reactivate the protocols before the system overloa—aaaAAAHHHH!”_

_“NII-SAMA!”_

~

Mokuba blinked, his brain switching to static for only a moment before refocusing on correcting Jonouchi’s terrible misplay of a Counter-Trap chain.

~

“Yami, I have another gift for you, if you’d be willing to accept it.”

Kaiba, normally so stoic and composed, actually looked…nervous.

“What gift…?” Yami inquired, holding out a gloved hand as per Kaiba’s request.

Kaiba took a deep breath and pulled a dark object from his pocket. Gingerly placing it in Yami’s hand, he popped it open, and Yami’s heart skipped a whole beat, proceeding to thunder in his chest; his eyes flew open, and the surrounding lights blurred in his vision as he nearly fainted on the spot.

“If you would be willing, I’d like you to take this Promise Ring,” Kaiba started, stating it like a speech. “I will wear one for you, as well, if you so choose to accept this token of--”

“ _Yes_ ,” Yami cut across him. “Yes, yes, oh, Ra, _yes_ , Seto.” He immediately pulled off his glove and helped Seto to slip the simple, but ornate ring onto his finger.

Kaiba’s face morphed from worry and uncertainty to unadulterated joy as Yami pulled him into a tight embrace. Kaiba could not repress the silly urge to lift him up and spin him on the spot; they laughed brightly, jubilantly, youthfully, holding each other and basking in happiness until they were on the brink of tears.

“I thought you might hesitate because of…what happened,” Seto admitted between gasps.

Yami kissed his cheeks once, twice, thrice each. “No, Seto. I’m here for you—always, _always_.” He affectionately, teasingly kissed his philtrum. “ _I_ will be your eyes.”

Kaiba tightly held him in response, resisting the prickling tears threatening to spill down his cheeks, envisioning the beautiful setting Yami had described. He was unsure of when they parted, only to meet again at the lips—joining for what felt like an eternity, rejecting the Winter’s chill around them, pulling each other close until they were basking in the warmth of each other’s souls. They kissed again and again and again, drowning in intoxicating desire and desperate need to be closer, _closer_ to one another, and Kaiba could only hold on as he surrendered to the utter joy and warm sensations that Yami instilled in him.

They only slowly pulled away, Yami enchanted by the glittering lights reflected in Seto’s eyes, the rest of the world vanishing around them, swallowed by the muted snow.

Soon after, they would creep past their wearying friends to Kaiba’s bedroom upstairs to embrace one another until the corporeal ache for each other had been temporarily satisfied and had given way to sleepiness, both of them locked in each other’s arms, bodies entangled, neither of them able nor willing to escape.

The following day, they would revel in the thrills of their new gifts, taking full advantage of the leisurely blessings of the inevitable snow day. Yami and Kaiba would finally announce the glad tidings to their companions, much to Yugi’s cheer and Jonouchi’s bemusement.

Yami would continue to assist Kaiba in his learning and work, including helping him to sleeve his cards. Immediately afterward, Kaiba would challenge him to a duel, which Yami would gladly accept. During their matches, Yami would guide Kaiba’s hand, the hand that bore a ring strikingly similar to Yami’s own.

But for now, all they needed was right here, right now, wrapped in each other’s arms among the glittering lights, the soft splashing of the fountain, the rejected cold of the December night, and, all around, the delicate drifting of the crystalline snow.

_Were Sun and Moon and Night and Day_  
_All to fade to shadows gray,_  
_Your beacon touch for when I roam,_  
_Always, I hope, will guide me home._

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> Special and endless thanks to prettiugli, a devoted writer and amazing friend, for all the beautiful works they've contributed to this site. I appreciate them from the depths of my heart~.
> 
> Thank you so much to all my lovely readers who took the time to read, leave kudos, and comment on this fic. I cannot thank you all enough for your dedicated support; it only serves to encourage me to write more and better fics in the future.
> 
> I had a positively jubilant time writing about a character with a disability, and I fully intend to write more characters with impairments in the future. However, as an able-bodied individual, I am fully aware that my knowledge of such subjects is limited, and if any of you lovely readers have sagely advice to offer on writing non-able-bodied characters, feel free to leave a constructive comment or message me~.
> 
> Thank you again for your attention and support. I have several other Prideshipping fic ideas in mind, and I hope to see you all again in another work.
> 
> Cheers, and happy holidays~.


End file.
